Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Laurence Chaderton and the problem of puritanism
- 2 Moderate beginnings: the case of Edward Dering
- 3 Chaderton's puritanism
- 4 The moderate puritan divine as anti-papal polemicist
- 5 Thomas Cartwright: the search for the centre and the threat of separation
- 6 William Whitaker's position as refracted through his anti-papal polemic
- 7 Theory into practice: puritan practical divinity in the 1580s and 1590s
- 8 William Whitaker at St John's: the puritan scholar as administrator
- 9 The theological disputes of the 1590s
- 10 Conformity: Chaderton's response to the Hampton Court Conference
- 11 William Bradshaw: moderation in extremity
- 12 Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Theory into practice: puritan practical divinity in the 1580s and 1590s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Laurence Chaderton and the problem of puritanism
- 2 Moderate beginnings: the case of Edward Dering
- 3 Chaderton's puritanism
- 4 The moderate puritan divine as anti-papal polemicist
- 5 Thomas Cartwright: the search for the centre and the threat of separation
- 6 William Whitaker's position as refracted through his anti-papal polemic
- 7 Theory into practice: puritan practical divinity in the 1580s and 1590s
- 8 William Whitaker at St John's: the puritan scholar as administrator
- 9 The theological disputes of the 1590s
- 10 Conformity: Chaderton's response to the Hampton Court Conference
- 11 William Bradshaw: moderation in extremity
- 12 Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Thus far this study has been largely concerned with formal theology. Certainly, the theological kernel of the moderate puritan position has been sought in essentially polemical situations where the proponents of the protestant case were concerned to assert, and defend from attack, their doctrinal position. In part this is unavoidable since it was precisely in such situations that doctrinal issues were formulated most clearly. However this is to ignore the way in which the formal principles of Cambridge Calvinism were translated into a style of practical divinity. This is a serious omission since the internal spiritual dynamic of puritan religion can hardly be understood if the formal doctrinal underpinning of that position is discussed in isolation. That formal basis has to be balanced by an analysis of the puritan style of preaching and of the ways in which the truths of right doctrine were actually presented to lay audiences. The sources for such an analysis are somewhat sparse. There are some, however, which allow such a study to be attempted. Firstly, we have a series of lecture notes taken from a course of lectures given by Laurence Chaderton in 1590/1. These are remarkably full and appear at times to amount to a verbatim account of what was said. To these can be added the contents of a commonplace book which from internal evidence appears to have belonged to a member of St John's College during the 1590s.
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- Moderate Puritans and the Elizabethan Church , pp. 116 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982
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